Former President Donald Trump testified Thursday he only wanted to protect himself and the presidency when he spoke out against columnist E. Jean Carroll and her claim that he raped her in a New York department store in 1996.
The former president and 2024 GOP front-runner testified he never instructed anyone to hurt Ms. Carroll after she came forward with the accusation in a 2019 magazine piece.
“No, I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly the presidency,” Mr. Trump said in a Manhattan courtroom, though Judge Lewis A. Kaplan struck his comments after the word “no.”
Mr. Trump testified for only 5 minutes after an even longer conversation between his attorneys and Judge Kaplan, who wanted to head off any trouble from the loquacious former president.
The judge limited what Mr. Trump could say because a prior jury concluded in 2022 that the former president assaulted Ms. Carroll and later defamed her. This trial pertains to Mr. Trump’s comments in 2019 while serving as president and whether he must pay additional damages to Ms. Carroll.
“She said something I considered a false accusation,” Mr. Trump said in the highly anticipated appearance. A lawyer for Ms. Carroll objected and Judge Kaplan told the jury to disregard the remark.
As Mr. Trump left the courtroom after his testimony, he shook his head, saying: “This is not America. This is not America. This is not America.”
The former president testified days after his massive victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, putting him on course to win the Republican presidential nomination. He’s in a two-person nominating race with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is sticking around to see how she does in her home state in February.
The nine-person jury was instructed to return Friday for closing arguments.
Jurors are considering whether Ms. Carroll is entitled to new damages because of Mr. Trump’s comments as president in 2019.
At a previous trial, a jury awarded her $5 million after finding Mr. Trump liable for sex abuse and defamation, though it rejected her claim that he had raped her.
Judge Kaplan said the liability finding from the first trial would carry over to the second trial, so jurors need only determine how much Mr. Trump must pay.
Earlier in the trial, the judge scolded Mr. Trump for his audible reactions to Ms. Carroll’s testimony, even threatening to boot the former president from the courtroom.
Thursday’s session started with testimony from Roberta Myers, the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine.
She testified that Ms. Carroll was a “truth teller” with her popular monthly advice column, while Ms. Myers was editor-in-chief of Elle magazine from 2000 to 2017.
Ms. Carroll’s attorneys followed the testimony by showing jurors clips of Mr. Trump on the campaign trail saying Ms. Carroll had concocted a “made up fabricated story” about him and portions of his October 2022 deposition when Mr. Trump denied knowing who Ms. Carroll was.
One snippet shown to jurors was when Mr. Trump, during his deposition, misidentified Ms. Carroll as his ex-wife, Marla Maples.
Trump attorney Alina Habba called as her first witness a retired television journalist and friend of Ms. Carroll — Frances Carol Martin — to testify, asking how she expressed her concern to her friend about her safety after Ms. Carroll went public with her claims about Mr. Trump in 2019 as she was publicizing a memoir.
Ms. Martin acknowledged that Ms. Carroll had assured her that she didn’t have any major security concerns as the public learned about her claims that Mr. Trump had raped her in the dressing room of a midtown Manhattan luxury department store.
Earlier in the trial, Ms. Carroll had testified about death threats that she continues to receive and her need to worry about her personal safety because Mr. Trump continues to speak of her publicly.
Beyond this trial, Mr. Trump awaits a separate civil trial judgment in New York.
State Attorney General Letitia James says the Trump Organization submitted false financial statements for years to gain favorable terms on loans and insurance.
Mr. Trump also faces four criminal trials this year related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, his storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and accusations he made hush payments to an adult film star and others before the 2016 election.
The former president denies all the allegations and says Democrats whipped up charges to thwart his political ambitions.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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